The First 100 Days of Enterprise Metadata

Knowledge: The Essence of Metadata

Information Management Online, January 19, 2006

R. Todd Stephens, Ph.D.

In the past six years, our organization has moved from ground zero to one of the most recognized metadata implementations in the world. In my educational sessions, one question comes up over and over again: "What should you focus on in the early stages of delivery?" Clearly, the answer is, "It depends on the environment and requirements." However, the vast majority of implementations will address and experience 80 percent of the same issues, challenges and obstacles. The components described in this article will include the functions, activities, tasks and deliverables that every implementation will encounter. With the exception of functions, each of the other three should be viewed as a hierarchal requirement of the one above.

1. Functions: The high-level areas of focus that describe the lifecycle of implementation.
2. Activities: Classifications of specific work performed by the implementation team.
3. Tasks: The detailed activities that have a specific deliverable or techniques.
4. Deliverables: Specific hard asset of utility that can be used throughout the program.

Unfortunately, due to the page and time limitations, only the first two layers of the model will be described in detail (functions and activities). The detail tasks and deliverables will need to wait for another column or perhaps a small book. Figure 1 provides a view of the framework functions and associations that will be reviewed here.

Figure 1: High Level View of Functions

The five basic functions include the development of the strategy, delivery functions, metadata production, metadata's support model and the consumption processes of metadata. Each of these map to an associated function related to the business of metadata. These associations include business development, procurement of raw materials, development of products and services and, finally, the delivery of the end-user experience or solutions. Each of these areas must be addressed by the implementation but the sequencing does not indicate a linear progression. Strategy comes first, but once you complete some of the strategic components you can start some of the delivery functions. The order, progression and dependency of the functions will depend on your culture, experience, and staffing.

Strategic Functions

A strategy is a long-term plan of action designed to scope the metadata effort in order to achieve the ultimate goal of supporting the competitive advantage of the business itself. The process of creating a strategy generally involves setting targets, performing gap analysis, formulating the business strategy and implementation. While some information workers view strategy as the development of goals, objectives and mission statements, the reality is that strategy includes so much more. The following list is a collection of activities that should be addressed early in the development of the enterprise metadata strategy.

• Establish ownership and sponsorship of the program.
• Establish the core team and associated staff.
• Conduct a needs analysis along with educating the organization.
• Review the information management, security and architecture policies.
• Identify the inventory of the standard measurements of performance.
• Develop the business case for metadata solutions.
• Arrange funding for the program.
• Determine the governance model.
• Establish brand identity for the program.
• Pilot a solution that addresses a specific business need.

These activities of strategy will vary in duration from one organization to the next. However, short changing even just one of these will cause pain in the later months or years of the program. Developing the program strategy is not a one-time event that is never to be reviewed again. In fact, an annual strategic plan should be performed by any information technology program. Annual plans force the organization to continue to evolve the vision and mission of the metadata program. The action plan is the basic deliverable of the strategy function, and the results can come in a variety of flavors. Action plans are the specific activities that you will be using to implement the strategy. Often these are stated as objectives. For instance, our growth goal objective might be to have a 10 percent increase in usage spanning over the repository collection. Another type of delivery is the action plan which identifies the tasks, responsible parties, timelines and financial commitments.

Delivery Functions

While strategy and action plans are important, the delivery activities are where the rubber meets the road. Product decisions will be made in the business case but the organization will still need to integrate the systems into the lifecycle of the business. The delivery phase is basically the system development lifecycle (SDLC) reviewed from the metadata perspective. The delivery stage begins with a design specification which states a solution to the customer's problem and ends with the delivery of the final solution. The following activities describe the delivery functions:

• Determine and develop the information architecture.
• Design the application, database and business processes.
• Define the content areas and knowledge models.
• Define the metadata standards and metamodels.
• Execute the system development lifecycle activities.
• Develop corresponding user guides and support documentation.

Every organization will have different requirements and standards on how products are delivered and supported within the technology area. The focus should be to ensure the customer requirements are addressed and delivered on time and within budget. At the end of this effort, the organization should have a fully functional metadata environment that has been architected from all four architecture perspectives: data, technical, functional and application.

Figure 1 combined the strategy and delivery into a single business function called business development. Taking a look at the specific activities of these two areas, you will notice many of the same ones suggested to anyone starting a business. Developing a business model, business case, accounting systems, marketing plan and acquiring funding are elements of starting a business as well as developing a metadata program.

Metadata's Production Functions

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